UPDATE 2: Added links to each individual course if you just want to skip right to one, links are right below under “Course Rundown”.

Be gentle, this was my first time playing the Wii version, I’m a lot better now… honest.

Anyway, The video above covers all 32 levels on 150cc. I first started out playing 50cc and it was WAY too slow, then I switched to 100cc (motorcycle only) and I had a hard time maneuvering Yoshi’s bike (turned too tight), so I said F’ it and went right for the 150cc. Hell… I’ve been been playing Mario Kart since the SNES days. I did alright.

I tried the Wheel at first and it worked well, but there was no way I’d be able to drift and compete in the 150cc class using the wheel option. The video above is with me playing with Wiimote and Nunchuck.

I’m going to hop around a lot in my following rant/pseudo review, it’s 4am and I just have random thoughts going on. I’d love to elaborate on any questions you have, just leave a comment. OK GO:

Mario Kart to me was perfected the very first time on the SNES. It has gone through 6 or so iterations and since the SNES version (which held its own for many years) I’d have to say that the N64 and the DS versions of the game nailed it. This is what makes Mario Kart Wii so good. It felt like the DS version on steroids, from the thumping nostalgic soundtrack, near perfect level design, to the online flawlessness.

The Mii integration was pretty smooth on Nintendo’s part. It was funny as hell to see my Hitler Mii try and run me over in a car and my Mitch Hedberg Mii on a poster in the Coconut Mall. From toll booth operators to a stadium of chanting Mii’s they sprinkled the Mii’s perfectly throughout the levels. This attention to detail is another example of how the “eye candy” in their level design is supreme. There are so many goodies all over the place (more than half I didn’t even notice the first time around).

I thought the graphics were good (not great), I was hoping to see a Mario Galaxy polish to the characters. You’ll see the polygon count come through on a few things, you’ll see hard edges where wall meets ground, and you’ll see low textures on certain materials, but the atmospheric feeling you get leaves those high detailed complaints behind. I first noticed how rich and detailed the game was during Wario’s Gold Mine level, just looking into the distance and beneath you made you feel deeply engaged. The pipes in particular were really nice. It’s also great to see that they didn’t skimp on the draw distance. You can clearly see background elements far off into the distant and when they’re not clear the blur effect works great. Don’t get me wrong about the graphics, they’re great, I’m just holding them up to Mario Galaxy. It’s also worth pointing out that it runs in full 16×9 and a steady 60fps (as far as my eye can tell).

Regarding the gameplay, I mentioned before that for the experienced/returning user, the Nunchuk/Wiimote will be the setup. I liked the wheel and it worked great, I just think it will take me a lot more practice to compete online with it or in the 150cc Lightning Cup. It’s also nice that you’re score/time/records will indicate when you use the wheel (sort of like SSBB). You also have an option to use the GC controller. It took me a few races to find the kart I wanted. I experimented with some motorcycles, but found their handling was too tight for me, I keep going into a drift too early and hitting a wall. I then went with what I think is the equivalent to the Yoshi egg kart in the DS version, which was Yoshi’s nostalgia 1 kart. I think it’s great for beginners and advanced users. I thought I may want a kart with a higher speed, but if your in the front you get bombarded by items (blue shells, red shells, lightning bolts, etc…) and I found that having a kart with good acceleration was more useful for me. I have been trying out the dirtbike recently and I’m starting to see the advantages of the bikes. For one you can pull back and do a wheelie to gain a little speed. While doing a wheelie you don’t have much control of your ride (left/right) unless you hop out of the wheelie into a turn. Timing wheelies nicely really take advantage of straight aways.

I’m sure you’ve heard that they removed “snaking” from the game this time around. “Snaking” was in the DS version and allowed you to drift back and forth while moving your finger quickly on the D-Pad left and right. Even though it’s gone, there were a few places where I managed to do mini snaking. I’m sure with more practice I’ll be able to control my drifts/boosts better and I’m positive some kid online will already have this perfected when you race him and you’ll wonder why his/her kart hops around erratically while moving twice as fast as you. During my night of playing I found some short cuts (some known, some not). You’ll see a perfectly timed jump during the Rainbow Road where I clear a gap. It was on accident, but I’m sure more shortcuts will be found and taken advantage of. Like any MK game, once you get more familiar with the course the more you’ll be able to find shortcuts and now when to start drifting.

The items:

Red Shell – Heat seeking shell Green Shell – Shoot at opponent, bounces off walls Banana – Spin out if ran over (you seem to recover faster on the Wii version) Blue Shell – Targets the player in the 1st position and blows them and surrounding riders up. Lightning Bolt – Shrinks all players Squid – Leaves ink blotches on all riders screens for 10 seconds or until they hit a speed marker or use a mushroom speed boost Mushroom – Boost of Speed Crowned Mushroom – 10+ boosts of speed in a row Question Mark box – Fake item box Bullet Bill – Turns you into Bullet Bill and shoots you ahead for about 5 seconds Cloud – Not sure, It strikes you with lightning if you do something wrong… I think if you get an item while its above you Mega Mushroom – Turns your kart into a Mega Kart almost the size of the screen for 4-5 seconds where your invincible and can flatten others Star – Immune to everything and speeds you up

It’s the small things too, like the character animations when you through a turtle shell in front or behind you. The way you get to balance out your kart when coming off a jump (Excitebike style), or the ability to do tricks with the motion controls (shake up, down, left, or right). The game is packed with subtle, but effective enhancements to the series. Another thing to note about doing a trick off a jump is that you get a boost when you land, so it’s worth your while to swing that Wiimote when jumping.

The game is setup much like the DS version as far as getting a grade A-F or a star/double star for supreme driving. Getting Gold cups will open unlockables like new karts, characters, and levels. Keep in mind that you don’t have immediate access to the Star Cup, Special Cup, Leaf Cup, and Lightning Cup (as seen in the video). I believe just placing in one of the other cups unlocks them.

I’m going to leave my impressions/review of the other parts of the game: Nintendo WFC, Battle Mode for later. I want to play a little more first to see how it holds up. Real quick though, the Battle Levels are really fun, I played 3 of them and was extremely impressed with the level designs on them. They also have 6 or so old school levels. Online has been flawless for me (about 50 races). You can race up to 12 players, each person votes on a course, or chooses random, then it randomly picks one of the courses. I didn’t notice ANY lag at all. You start your WFC career with 5,000 points and if you place in the upper half you’ll get positive points and if you place in the lower half you’ll get negative points all of which are tallied up with your original 5,000 (I’m up to 6,000 now). Beyond straight racing online you can share and post your ghost data. You get to see a top racers in your region, your friends, and the whole world. It’s pretty fun to get the fastest ghost and race it. Even if you lose you can get some tips on who they use and how they move through out the course.

I know I missed a bunch, I’ll probably add to this as I think of things, but feel free to ask questions. I really think Nintendo nailed this version of Mario Kart. They took what worked and ran with it. Only complaints were that at times it felt that your kart could be quicker, even at 150cc it seemed sort of slow paced. The other would be the rendering of the characters, I think a little more detail would have really made this game unbeatable. I’m going out on a limb now and say this is the best Mario Kart to date. Buy this game.

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I’ve been playing Mario Kart since the SNES days myself… but I stopped playing any of the ones after the N64 version… it seemed like the pace slowed down too much and the levels were widened up as well, which just made the game feel too simple, also seemed like the controls became very loose in the version after SNES. I’m looking forward to the overly tight controlling of the motorcycles, sounds like I may finally be able to get back into this crazy fun game. How many battle mode levels are there? I’ve disliked the lack of options in the battlemode levels on the previous consoles, battle mode is so fun!… why have they only been giving 4 levels to choose from for it??

http://wiinintendo.net/index.php?s=hey_suburbia hey_suburbia

RE: why have they only been giving 4 levels to choose from for it??

I have no idea. In this version you have 16 off the bat, maybe more unlockable…

http://fadecy.blogspot.com fadecy

how the heck did you get it before it’s even released in europe?
Lucky…

Berend Jan

It’s good to see that the more is better policy for the powerups is gone. It looks like is less a slalom between bananapeels and greenshels then the GameCube version was. DS version on steroids… ill take that as an positive think I think the DS version is the best version so i hope to get a list like this

WII, DS, SNES, N64, GBA, GC

but i have to wait 2 more days before i can see the game in action

taylor

You have a Mitch Hedberg mii? Sweet. You’re my new favorite news guy. TAKE THAT DAN RATHER!!

christian

So, aside from you mentioning your Mii’s that you created appearing as either NPCs or
textures – is there any ability to race as you Mii? Even online?

http://wiinintendo.net/index.php?s=hey_suburbia hey_suburbia

@christian.

Good question, I didn’t look into that. I recall the screens of MK showing the Mii’s driving the karts. I’ll check it out when I get home (3 hours). It may also be an unlockable… Either way I’ll probably have enough of the game done to have unlocked it.

I’ll expand on this “review” later tonight. This is my first 5 hour review, I’ll do my 2nd 5 hour tonight.

Keep on with the questions, so I know what to look for while playing, thanks everyone!

Mack2D2

How about the attack/defense items… is the traditional bananas, shells, shrooms, and fake question mark boxes all we’re getting this time around or did they give us something new in that field?

http://forums.wiinintendo.net/ SirVenom

1,600 views and rising fast… and only five diggs?! Come on people, DIGG IT!

http://wiinintendo.net/index.php?s=hey_suburbia hey_suburbia

@Mack2D2

Thanks for reminding me, I meant to right about them originally.

The Wii version introduces a few new items.

Red Shell – Heat seeking shell
Green Shell – Shoot at opponent, bounces off walls
Banana – Spin out if ran over (you seem to recover faster on the Wii version)
Blue Shell – Targets the player in the 1st position and blows them and surrounding riders up.
Lightning Bolt – Shrinks all players
Squid – Leaves ink blotches on all riders screens for 10 seconds or until they hit a speed marker or use a mushroom speed boost
Mushroom – Boost of Speed
Crowned Mushroom – 10+ boosts of speed in a row
Question Mark box – Fake item box
Bullet Bill – Turns you into Bullet Bill and shoots you ahead for about 5 seconds
Cloud – Not sure, It strikes you with lightning if you do something
Mega Mushroom – Turns your kart into a Mega Kart almost the size of the screen for 4-5 seconds where your invincible and can flatten others
Star – Immune to everything and speeds you up

I think that’s it.

http://www.xanga.com/relaxing_roth Roth

That is NUTS~! I like the widescreen and stereo sounds of the cow bells, haha. I notice the music has changed as well, but they kept the same race jingle intro as Double Dash. I wish they took back some of the sounds from Mario Kart 64.

Also, they eliminated the classic “orchestra hit” sound that Yoshi makes in the MK64 version.

The visuals are stunning. This is definitely what the Gamecube version should’ve been.

Please tell us more about the multiplayer online and offline. No more free-for-all I hear? I’m sure there’s plenty of things to unlock.

// Roth

http://fadecy.deviantart.com fadecy

This is being linked on Kotaku. That’s why it has so many views. People are bithing and moaning over at Kotaku though >_>.And yes you can play as your Mii guys. You have to unlock it though.

http://fadecy.deviantart.com fadecy

You forgot the mega mushroom Mickey

http://wiinintendo.net/index.php?s=hey_suburbia hey_suburbia

@fadecy, your right. I’ll add it to the comment and to the additional impressions I’ll write later tonight.

http://www.videogamedc.com Potatoman

Online battle mode?

Jason

@hey_suburbia have you played Mario Kart Double Dash? Yes or No? You say you’re a long time Mario Kart fan but failed to address how Mario Kart Wii is compared to Double Dash.

If your comparing Mario Kart Wii to Mario Kart DS, well duh – you ought to be impressed. I have Mario Kart DS too but I’m more interested in how it compares to it’s closest technical counterpart – Double Dash.

http://wiinintendo.net/index.php?s=hey_suburbia hey_suburbia

@Jason

I have and played DD many times. I used the DS one as a main comparison because in my opinion that was the best MK game (not graphically of course).

To answer your question Mario Kart Wii compared to Double Dash technically would be easiest to explain by saying it took the leap that Galaxy did over Sunshine. It has a very polished feel to it, runs at a great frame rate, the controls are fantastic (extra power boost for longer held power slides), the colors are far more vivid over DD, the tracks are thought through a lot more (different routes, shortcuts).

I feel like I need to add a lot more to my impressions to give the readers a better understanding. I’ll try to make a more cohesive “review” tonight.

http://forums.wiinintendo.net/ SirVenom

@fadecy

They are always moaning over at Kotaku, aren’t they? At least, all of the articles that I check over there they are…

http://www.videogamedc.com Potatoman

is the blooper a common item? also can you switch off certain items?

christian

@hey_suburbia –

k, now that we know Mii action is possible and unlockable, we’re counting on your for some screens to see how it looks!

Thanks for the info and the video.

W00T!

Artie Vargas

‘Mario Kart’ fans unite!

Whether you’re excited or not, ‘Mario Kart Wii’ is almost upon us!

The original SNES game is a classic and will always have a special spot in the video game section of my heart.

I’ve been a super, heavily-addicted fanatic of the series since the first game was released in 1992. My friends and I would play hundreds of marathon battle mode matches in a single sitting. Hours of fun! After the last match, the world around us would appear to be in Mode 7! Memories… Ah, memories… Gotta love it! I know you do. Care to share?

Listen, every ‘Mario Kart’ has been an evolution from the previous one, not a revolution. That’s alright. If Nintendo kept everything the same, people would bitch. When Nintendo changes things… The same people bitch. Please, stop the bitching people! Learn to enjoy instead. It’s much more fun.

Play it. Love it. Or leave it.

Things change. Things evolve. Get used to it. You name it, things change… People. Food. Movies. Cars. Video game systems and every subsequent ‘Mario Kart’ released.

Yet, once you get used to the differences, every game is a solid, multiplayer “go-kart” racing action classic. From ‘Mario Kart 64′ to ‘Mario Kart Arcade GP’, the series is a gold cup trophy winner!

I’m hyper-excited for this version of the series! I have an advent calendar ready and I’m counting down the damn days, baby! April 27… Would you please hurry tha hell up!

Lets’a go! Wahoo!

*(Psst… Hey! You… Yeah, you – Don’ even ask about the ‘Wheel Wheel’. The jury is deliberating on that one and will decide it’s fate on April 27.)*

Dannbuoy

It looks so so, I’ll still buy it though…

shanoboy

I was lucky to come by a PAL copy of this game and loved it too. I actually enjoyed hooking up the Wii Virtual Console controller and playing with that.

I think it’s really cool that you’re offered 4 different controller options. The GC controller might be the best option for hardcore racers though.

Malc

Me and my son having been playing Mario Kart Wii for nearly a week now and WOW what a SWEET game. This is Nintendo at its best first Metroid Prime 3 then Super Mario Galaxy then Super Smash Brothers Brawl and now Mario Kart Wii. Considering all the third rate games that have been released since the launch of the Wii these four Nintendo games stand out like a poodle’s balls. If you only buy a Wii just for these four games there is more than enough to keep you going for months even years. This is Nintendo in their finest hour proving you don’t need over the top expensive console hardware to make top notch quality games with playability being the most important component of any game. We have been playing Mario Kart Wii non stop now and all I can say is Super Nintendo Mario Kart all over again and SOME !!!. Guys my advice is when you get your hands on this game book a week, take a sicky or give up your job as your not gonna want to stop playing this once you start. Thumbs up Nintendo you have done it again another TOP TOP game and yes the gamecube controller is by far the best control method.. Enjoy another Nintendo fine one..

tink

Sweet video — what a great way to waste a day at work!

I’m curious how responsive the wheel is. Other steering games feel like the the controller is disconnected from the action. I’ll likely try a variety of configurations but would love to find a game for the wii that will actually let me feel like I’m driving.

Malc

My son has been playing using the steering wheel and I must say Nintendo have got it right, it is the first Wii game that seems to have the balance of steering with the Wii remote spot on. I do prefer to use the gamecube controller as I am a old school player, but my 8 year old son had no problems with just picking it up and playing. He has just been coming 1st in some online races using the steering wheel and is whipping my 34 year old arse at it. Must be getting to old lol. The online options in the game are amazing, have had no lag at all and is running as smooth as silk @ 480P. This game is a must have. got to leave the PC now need my Mario Kart fix.

tink

Thanks for the feedback.

@hey_suburbia: You got robbed on that first vs race. Thanks for all the footage — it’s a great way to waste time at work

It’s also cool to see your improvement as your play — you’ve got the power slides down tight!

Not sure if anybody’s corrected you yet, and I don’t feel like reading all these comments… but here it is…

Cloud Item – makes you drive fast, as if you had a star, but after about 5 seconds it shocks you and shrinks you. This is not because you did something wrong, it just does it. The only way to prevent this from happening is to crash into (touch) another racer. Being fast makes that an easier task. Make use of the speed for a little before passing off the “disease.”

I have won all the levels but am stillonly able to play two players with 100cc?

mariokartfreak

Yeah, you can. You gotta get gold in all 150cc cups.

http://www.motorcycle-fairing.com Fairings

I’ve been playing Mario since I was a kid. Now, I still enjoy playing the new versions.

Mom

I guess I can’t watch any videos since you need to have Windows! I have an airbook mac…… boo hoo

http://Tiscali Chanon

How do you unlock Dry Bowser Jr on Mario Kart Wii???

paul

I play Mario Kart WII alot,.. everyday since it was released. Somehow people playing online have found supercheats such as unlimited star power, unlimited mega-mushrooms and even a way to play an extra 10 to 15 seconds after the match ends. I’ve lost pleanty of races after my team was ahead when the clock expired. Do you know how they are doing it. I’m getting tired of ending up playing against players with rankings of 9999.

paul

hey chanon, you can unlock dry bowser by getting at least 1 star on all 150cc races.

http://www.google.co.uk james

IT DOESN’T WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALSO WHAT DO YOU OPEN THE SOUNDTRACK WITH????

Damion Chibi Wolf

ok i got a question me and my mom were wondering if you chose to do all thirty two races on multiplayer and also choose the Random Track option….will you do all thirty two of the races but they are just random or will it give you like two of one race and skip a track?

http://www.clubpenguincheats.me/ ClubPenguinCheats

The only way to prevent this from happening is to crash into (touch) another racer. Being fast makes that an easier task. Make use of the speed for a little before passing off the “disease.”

http://www.clubpenguincheats.me/ ClubPenguinCheats

I was a little rusty. I've gotten A LOT better now. I think I'm officially going with Yoshi's Dirtbike as my ride now.

Chloe

hello Racers!!!

Rubeus

Hi!

None

dude. when you get lightnong cloud, it shrinks you in a certain amount of time. but if you bump someone elses cart, they get it.

Rubeus

I looked in the dictionary and I couldn’t find the word lightnong anywhere, so can you tell me the meaning? lol.

Like this comment if you watch Troy’s videos! If not, please check his videos out and his username is TWD98. Since I don’t have a youtube account, I need you to do all the likes and subscriptions to him please! Watch his videos!!!